There is a growing awareness regarding forceful door closings occurring proximate to small children such as toddlers and the like are resulting in significant child trauma injuries. These injuries can occur when children's fingers get caught between the door's edge and its respective jamb as the door is closed forcibly, such as by a cross breeze moving through the home. The resulting child physical trauma may be so extensive that amputation may be mandated.
These concerns as well as other situations, such as those involving the elderly, who may have issues (physical or cognitive impairment [dementia, Alzheimer's, etc.]) that may otherwise limit their ability to operate door handles. Other situations requiring door stoppers may involve pets (e.g., dogs, cats, etc.) who may otherwise get locked in rooms without water or food.
To remedy these situations, care givers and the like may utilize door stoppers that attach to a doorway in such a manner that may prevent the door from closing full within its frame. Many of the door stopper devices generally require operator intervention for activating the device. One such door stopper that prevents door closures but allows the door to be fully opened has a U-shaped or C-shaped body made from resilient material. The operator places the device on a door outer side edge to reversibly retain the door side edge between the arms formed by the stopper's C or U-shape. This device positioning projects the remainder of the stopper's body outward from the door's outer side edge to allow the device to make contact with the respective door jamb when the door is moved towards a closed position to hold the door. In this operating position (e.g., operative state) the device still allows to door to be fully opened at any time to generally allow full egress through the doorway. When the operator wishes to fully close the door, the operator then removes the door stopper from the door's outer side edge and may hang the device on the door handle/knob in its storage position.
Another such door stopper is also U-shaped and generally operates in a similar manner but is placed proximate to a door hinge to generally locate the door stopper between the hinged door jamb and its respective door's inner side edge to hold the door ajar.
Still yet another door stopper attaches to side of the door by its outer side edge, this door stopper further having a horizontally sliding arm. The operator manually slides the arm out past the door's outer side edge to allow the arm to reversibly engage a respective door jamb to prevent door closure. The operator then manually slides the arm back into the storage position to allow the door to be fully closed.
Other door stoppers, when activated, may fix the distance between an opened door and its respective non-hinged door jamb. One such door stopper engages/attaches to both the door's outer side edge and to its respective door jamb to generally hold the door apart from its door jamb for a fixed distance. That stopper has double-ends with each end having a respective clamp. The operator attaches one clamp reversibly to the door edge and attaches other clamp to the respective non-hinged door jamb to hold the door open at a fixed distance from that door jamb. The operator then generally removes the door holder from the door and door jamb to generally allow the door to fully close.
Yet another such door stopper attaches a pivoting arm proximate to the door edge and attaches a separate post to the respective door jamb. The post can reversibly engage a channel within the pivoting arm to the post to fix the distance between the door edge and its jamb. The removal of the pivoting arm from the post generally permits door to be fully opened (e.g., allowing egress through the doorway.)
As seen above, such door stoppers generally require operator intervention to place the door stopper generally into its operating position. Such activation may require the operator to continually exert diligence to properly and timely activate such devices (e.g., placing the device on the door edge, engaging the device to interact with the door jamb, and the like). This diligence, however, may be impaired or even significantly reduced to a dangerous extent when the operator is focusing other activities unrelated to those activities requiring the activation of the door stopper (e.g., providing care to one or more small children, the elderly, pets, etc. to whom such door stopper devices offer their protection.)
What could be needed therefore is a door stopper that does not rely upon operator's diligence or intervention to be placed into an operating position/condition. Such a door stopper could be gravity-biased towards its operating position to automatically move at least one part into position to allow that part to contact a portion of the doorway to prevent door closure. The door stopper could then go into its operative position whenever an opening of the door releases the door stopper from its storage position. The door stopper could then stay in its operating position until subsequent operator intervention places the door stopper back into its storage or non-operating position.